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><A
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>47.1. Formatting</A
></H1
><P
>    Source code formatting uses 4 column tab spacing, with
    tabs preserved (i.e., tabs are not expanded to spaces).
    Each logical indentation level is one additional tab stop.
   </P
><P
>    Layout rules (brace positioning, etc) follow BSD conventions.  In
    particular, curly braces for the controlled blocks of <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>if</TT
>,
    <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>while</TT
>, <TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>switch</TT
>, etc go on their own lines.
   </P
><P
>    Limit line lengths so that the code is readable in an 80-column window.
    (This doesn't mean that you must never go past 80 columns.  For instance,
    breaking a long error message string in arbitrary places just to keep the
    code within 80 columns is probably not a net gain in readability.)
   </P
><P
>    Do not use C++ style comments (<TT
CLASS="LITERAL"
>//</TT
> comments).  Strict ANSI C
    compilers do not accept them.  For the same reason, do not use C++
    extensions such as declaring new variables mid-block.
   </P
><P
>    The preferred style for multi-line comment blocks is
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>/*
 * comment text begins here
 * and continues here
 */</PRE
><P>
    Note that comment blocks that begin in column 1 will be preserved as-is
    by <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pgindent</SPAN
>, but it will re-flow indented comment blocks
    as though they were plain text.  If you want to preserve the line breaks
    in an indented block, add dashes like this:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>    /*----------
     * comment text begins here
     * and continues here
     *----------
     */</PRE
><P>
   </P
><P
>    While submitted patches do not absolutely have to follow these formatting
    rules, it's a good idea to do so.  Your code will get run through
    <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>pgindent</SPAN
> before the next release, so there's no point in
    making it look nice under some other set of formatting conventions.
    A good rule of thumb for patches is <SPAN
CLASS="QUOTE"
>"make the new code look like
    the existing code around it"</SPAN
>.
   </P
><P
>    The <TT
CLASS="FILENAME"
>src/tools</TT
> directory contains sample settings
    files that can be used with the <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>emacs</SPAN
>,
    <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>xemacs</SPAN
> or <SPAN
CLASS="PRODUCTNAME"
>vim</SPAN
>
    editors to help ensure that they format code according to these
    conventions.
   </P
><P
>    The text browsing tools <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>more</SPAN
> and
    <SPAN
CLASS="APPLICATION"
>less</SPAN
> can be invoked as:
</P><PRE
CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"
>more -x4
less -x4</PRE
><P>
    to make them show tabs appropriately.
   </P
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